FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Christopher J. Herrera, Christopher@ran.org, 510.290.5282
Philadelphia, PA—This afternoon activists disrupted JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s speech at a World Affairs Council event, calling attention to the bank’s funding of fossil fuels, carbon pollution, and Indigenous rights violations.
“What we need is a historic redirection of capital away from fossil fuels,” said Tess Geyer, Senior Climate and Energy Organizer at Rainforest Action Network. “JPMorgan Chase continues to be the dirtiest bank on Wall Street — driving climate change, environmental disaster, and Indigenous rights abuses.”
JPMorgan Chase is the top US funder of extreme fossil fuels, which include tar sands, Arctic oil, coal, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. Its role in funding tar sands is particularly egregious. From the start of 2014 to the end of September 2017, JPMorgan Chase pumped $8.4 billion into the largest tar sands extraction and pipeline companies such as Cenovus, Canadian Natural Resources, TransCanada and Kinder Morgan. This is more than twice the tar sands funding of any other US bank.
JPMorgan Chase is also a lead bank of Enbridge, the company behind the controversial Line 3 tar sands pipeline, which directly threatens Indigenous rights and culture. The opposition of three Ojibwe nations in Minnesota whose lands would be crossed by the pipeline demonstrates that Enbridge’s Line 3 project violates the internationally recognized principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent for impacted Indigenous peoples.
“We want Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, to hear us loud and clear: Step up and stop funding climate disaster” said Ruth Breech, Senior Climate and Energy Organizer at Rainforest Action Network. “Extreme fossil fuels like tar sands, and mega-pipelines, are incompatible with a stable climate and violate Indigenous rights.”
###
Rainforest Action Network runs hard-hitting campaigns to break North America’s fossil fuels addiction, protect endangered forests and Indigenous rights, and stop destructive investments around the world through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action. For more information, please visit: www.ran.org